litchi

The 7 year thing is untrue in Alabama. On the application, there are "regulation" questions that ask you about things like criminal offenses and substance abuse. If you answer yes to any of the questions, you're then required to provide a written disclosure explaining the situation. It's in your best interest to be completely honest. Tell them what, when, why, all of that. Then follow up with what you've learned and how you've bettered yourself, which is sounds like you've done! It will take your application a little longer to go through, but it's definitely better than 7 years. I know we're in different states and things might be a little different in Florida.. I just thought I'd share, considering that you're not limited to sit in Florida just because you live there. (Source: Soon to Be Nursing Graduates videos from Non-CE course offerings)

I can only comment on the way that you've presented things and being entitled is the way you've come across. You were given your third choice, which is still one of your top 3. I can see where being given your #3 might be a little disappointing, but I don't think anyone would normally expect that being given your #3 would be so horrible. From the perspective of the person trying to juggle a whole cohort of students, getting in your top 3 is probably a success. I'm sorry you don't seem to think so and instead think it was her just being lazy. If you didn't want something you shouldn't have listed it, especially if you've encountered multiple problems with your program already. What's done is done though and you've got to deal with the hand you've been dealt. In my first response, I did say that it would be worth trying for something different.. but not if you're going to say things like, "Do I have a choice?" and just walk away when you don't like the outcome. That type of behavior is what I was alluding to before. If you're going to turn this situation around, you're going to have to set all your feelings aside because even minor slips can work against you. To directly answer your question -- yes, it will definitely be worth asking for a different placement if that's what you want. If you can't get something else immediately, ask if you can precept in another area once you've completed all your hours in behavioral health. If you do end up being stuck in behavioral health, keep an open mind and network like Ruby Vee suggested. You never know what life has in store for you! Just as a side note, I've heard that behavioral health is actually a pretty good prospect for new grads. If your major concern is just to get a job, it might not really be that bad of a place for you to be precepting in.

I know you're upset and venting, but come on.. why did you put behavioral health down as a choice if you absolutely did not want it? You obviously had to have SOME interest in it. You might even realize that you like it more than you thought, or you might not. Either way, you've got to make the best of the situation you've been given. The reality is, when you graduate, the same thing might happen. Even if you do get the placement you want, you still might not be offered a job in your #1 spot. You might have to take something you don't really want just to get your foot in the door. It won't hurt to try to find a different spot, but you've absolutely got to keep your attitude in check. You're not going to get anywhere if you act like an entitled brat towards the people who can help you. At my school, if we finish early, we're given the opportunity to precept in another area. Maybe your instructor will let you do something similar if they're unable to find you a more appealing spot. Just keep in mind -- your attitude is what's going to make or break you. It might not be your 1st choice, but that doesn't mean that you won't have something to contribute or to learn. This is your chance to show people that you're going to be a valuable part of the team. Stay positive and always put your best foot forward! You CAN do this.

When I get my BSN in May, it will be my second bachelor's degree. Both of my degrees combined will still cost less than $40k. Of course, the first degree cost considerably less than it would now because I took classes 10 years ago when it was much cheaper.. but still. $38k per year? No thanks! Even though there are plenty of schools with much more acceptable tuition rates, moving to another state usually = higher out-of-state tuition rates. You can still look around and try to find better alternatives though. Hopefully, someone else here will have some good suggestions for you too! Honestly.. If I had it to do over again, I would just go get all my basics out of the way at the cheapest community college I could find.. then transfer to a good, moderately priced school to do my nursing classes. I'd try to get the best grades I could at the cc and go for a transfer scholarship once I was done. Of course, when I graduated high school the last thing I wanted to do was go to some crappy community college so I went to a 4 year college instead and, well.. I won't even get into how that went! I definitely wish I had done differently now though.

Yep. It was one of those things that I didn't think I'd really use ever again. I kinda wondered why I even needed to take a stats class for nursing to begin with.. well, now I know why!

I just started my summer Scholarly Inquiry class where we read lots and lots of nursing research. After picking up my book and reading my first assigned article, I've quickly come to the conclusion that I probably shouldn't have brain dumped everything I learned in my statistics class. I'm having a hard time understanding everything. I get the overall gist of things from reading the abstracts and conclusion. When it comes to answering the more number oriented questions though, I'm still struggling a bit. I'm not looking for answers exactly, just guidance. I'm having problems with three questions in particular: 1) The researcher characterizes the r of -.33 as "moderate." Do you agree with this characterization? 2) For the r of -.50, the researcher indicates that "p 3') The researcher reports the values of six correlation coefficients: (r = -.33, p For the first question, I'm assuming that the further the number is away from 0 the stronger it is. The problem is, I'm not sure about the range. Is it 0 to -1? If so, -.33 still seems small to me. However, later on in the study the r of -.50 is said to be considered strong. Given that, I'd agree that -.33 would be moderate. Is that right? I'm not really sure. For the second question, I'm pretty sure that p is probability. The .01 is the percentage. So there's less than a 1% chance to have.. wait, what? I think my brain was on the right track, then it just got tired or something. I'm getting confused again. For the third question, I would think that the (r = -.5, p I've been googling my little heart out trying to figure this stuff out, but I'm still getting lost and a little frustrated with it. It doesn't help that I'm going to be tested over it tomorrow. I actually think I'll do ok, but I'd still like to actually understand what all these numbers mean. I've got a LOT more articles to read over the next 5 weeks after all. If anybody could help steer me in the right direction, I would really appreciate it.

While this might be true at some schools, it's not true of all nursing schools. My nursing instructors will round grades provided that you've attended classes and actively participated. I do agree that begging for points isn't the way to go, but if final grades haven't been turned in there may be some extra work the instructor might be willing to let you do. It's a long shot, sure.. but I don't think it would hurt to ask. Just don't beg! If you do have to repeat the class, don't wait till after the final to talk to the instructor about your grades if you're still struggling. Good luck!

I agree with roser. We've really been blessed with the outpouring of love and support that's been shown to us. There are already plenty of local volunteers from the surrounding communities here in North Alabama, MS, TN, and GA. If you're from further out of state and want to help, the best thing you can do would be to donate money. We still need supplies, especially water. Power has yet to be restored in many areas and people have been asked to conserve water. Donating money so that we can bring in more bottled water and other much needed supplies would definitely be a huge help.

I'm trying to figure out the concentration of a solution, then the concentration and volume per minute and hour. I mostly think I've got the hang of it, but I'm worried about knowing when to round. My instructor gave us this rule to follow for rounding: If it's over 1 mL, round to the nearest 10th. If it's under 1 mL, round to the nearest 100th. That being said, I have the following problem. Heparin 1000 units in D5W 500 mL at 50 mL/hr A. concentration of solution = 2 units/mL (1000 units/500 mL = ? units/mL) B. vol/min = 0.83 mL/min (50 mL/hr x 1 hr/60 min) C. vol/hr = 50 mL/hr (given) D. concentration/min = 1.7 units/min (2 units/mL x 0.83 mL/min = 1.66 units/min) E. concentration/hr = 102 units/hr (1.7 units/min x 60 min/hr) I did everything right except in the book the answer for B was rounded to 0.8 mL/min, which threw my answers for D and E off as well. I can't find anything in the book regarding rounding (I'm sure it's there somewhere, I'm just not seeing it). I would just ask my instructor, but apparently the board we use to communicate is down for maintenance today. Do you think my answers are still ok, given than I followed the rounding rule my instructor told us to follow or is there something else about IV solutions I should know? Any input is appreciated!

Why do I have to choose to be compassionate or realistic? Who says I can't be both? The response that was suggested in the article was a textbook therapeutic response. Since I started nursing school, I've learned all about therapeutic communication. The techniques are really useful, but a lot of the textbook responses I've seen aren't very realistic. Because of that, whenever I see a statement like the one the article suggested, I don't take it literally--I'm never gonna say something like that to a patient in real life! I've learned to translate those statements into something that I would actually say that has a similar meaning. So, to me the response from the article is basically saying, "Hey, let's come up with some realistic goals to help you manage your weight". I don't think think the intent was to say that nurses can't be upfront with obese patients, or at least it shouldn't have been. When you're establishing a relationship with a patient, it's actually better if you're honest with them. I don't think being realistic and making them feel guilty go hand in hand though. Judging a patient or making them guilty purposefully would be detrimental to your relationship with them. A patient is more likely to do well if they know they've got someone on their side who they can trust. Besides, most people don't need anyone else's help feeling guilty anyway. Guilt may very well be a personal motivator, but it shouldn't be something a nurse uses.

Since you're not sure, I'd just include any medical diagnoses as "history of COPD" or whatever in your assessment. That should work. Like Aleah_RN said, once you get your first one back you'll have a good idea of how your instructors want things. I have the Davis nursing diagnosis book.. it took some getting used to, but it's pretty good. Some people in my clinical group really liked to use this care plan constructor. It's easy, not to mention free. I still like having an actual book, but that's just a personal preference more than anything..

My instructors always made us include AEB or r/t in our diagnosis. We also had a spot for patient information at the very beginning, which is where we would include medical diagnoses/medications/anything relevant to the diagnosis that wasn't part of our assessment.

I think it depends on if you have all your prereqs done or not. ADN and BSN programs are pretty much the same length.. but if you've still got to take two semesters of A&P before you can start the BSN program, that's just added an extra year until your graduation date. If you already have ALL your prereqs done, going for the BSN is a good choice. If you still have to take a few classes like A&P or Micro, going for the ADN would allow you to take nursing classes at the same time. Either way, you'll still be an RN in the end.. so there's not a wrong choice. I'd just do whatever would take the least amount of time. I went straight for my BSN.. but a lot of that had to do with the fact that since I have a previous degree, my financial aid options are limited. I don't qualify for grants at all anymore and at the community college here I couldn't even get a loan.. so that kinda made the choice for me.

Evolve should have sent a report link to whatever email address you entered when you took the test. It does a pretty good job of explaining things if you can find it. I just took my HESI today and this is what the report they sent says about conversion scores: Your "conversion score" is a weighted percentage score that considers the average difficulty of the exam and the average difficulty of the test items you answered. Basically, five of the questions are pilot questions and don't count for or against you. The rest of the questions are weighted, so some are worth more points than others. The harder ones count more and the easier ones count less. That's how your conversion score can be so high even though you missed 6 of the 55. That's also why they say you can't compare tests with other people because even if you miss the same number of questions, you might have different scores. The percentile score is based on the number of students who have taken the same test in the past 364 days. For me, it was compared to 25,322 students. Your percentile score means that you scored that much higher than the rest of the students in the nation.

I already had a bachelor's degree in another field when I decided to pursue a degree in nursing. In my state, the ADN and BSN programs both take 2 years to complete. I figured since I already had a bachelor's and eventually would like to get a master's, it'd be easier to go straight for the BSN. I didn't count on the extra science prerequisites I would have to take increasing the time frame to complete my BSN to over 3 years. If I'd gone for the ADN, I could've taken care of my prereqs and nursing classes at the same time. Of course, I would still have to go on to get a BSN in some form or fashion.. but I would've at least been out and working as an RN in the meantime. Basically, If I'd done the ADN and then done a bridge program, I would still have finished my BSN in about the same time.. but I would've had my RN license and a year experience (hopefully!) under my belt already. My advice is choose the route that takes the least amount of time to get your RN. I would take into consideration any extra classes you might need for your BSN. In my case, I had to take A&P I and II, Microbiology, some psychology classes and a stats class. If you already meet the requirements for entrance into a BSN program, or only have one or two classes to take, go for the BSN because it won't take you that much longer to complete it. If you have a lot of prereqs to do like I did, then it might be a better idea to go for the ADN first. Another thing to take into consideration is if you'll be needing financial aid. In most cases, if you already have a degree you don't qualify for student loans at a community college. I have heard that if you have proof that you've been admitted into a nursing program, that you can file for a hardship and still be eligible.. but since I didn't go that route, I'm not 100% sure. Maybe someone else can comment on that..